Legarda To Establish LIFE

During her visit to the Province of Leyte, reelectionist Senator Loren Legarda (Nationalist People's Coalition) announced her plan to establish LIFE or the Legarda Institute For Environment.

Legarda, the United Nations Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific, made the announcement after her visit to the Eastern Visayas State University in Tacloban City where she conducted one of her disaster risk reduction (DRR) roadshows.

"In the ongoing effort to integrate climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and environmental protection in our way of life, I have partnered with the Eastern Visayas State University to establish the very first Legarda Institute For Environment in the country," she said.

LIFE is a research and training center for complex and innovative studies on climate change adaptation, disaster mitigation and environmental protection.

"This institute will provide the facility and means to acquire quality education in Environmental Science through research and development and experts on the field," she explained.

Legarda said that the LIFE in EVSU will serve as template for the same institutes that she intends to establish in all regions in the country on her next term.

"If more Filipinos will have deeper understanding of the environment and climate change, we will have more partners not only in helping develop better climate adaptation and disaster mitigation policies and programs, but also in our education, information and communication campaign on these issues. I am hopeful that as a nation and as individuals, we will all be greatly aware of what we must do to make our communities disaster-resilient, and safe from the ill effects of the changing climate," Legarda concluded.